JIA's new system helping snag more dangerous items, says TSA

Each and every checked item has quite a journey at Jacksonville International Airport.

On Tuesday, Action News Jax got a close-up look at the updated inline bag screening system, which is supposed to ensure your luggage gets from point A to point B faster.

“We do as much as we can do humanely possible. What we can do with technology and we have the finest training that anyone can have in the systems,” TSA Security Director Tricia Chasse said.

JIA first got its inline bag screening system in 2003. A lot has changed since then. We’re told roughly $19 million worth of work had to be done in the past two years to bring this system up to date.

Once you check your bags in, they go through a series of conveyer belts, then through an explosive detection system.

If something is found, your bag goes to another -- where a TSA worker physically checks the pinpointed area of the bag.

Having an efficient bag screening process is important not just to get you and your belongings to your destination faster, but also to stop potentially harmful stuff from making its way onto the plane.

In the past couple of weeks alone, TSA agents at JIA have intercepted bullets, brass knuckles and hand grenades, just to name a few.

“Most of them just said they forgot, but that's not an acceptable response,” Sari Koshetz with TSA said.

If you’re like most of us, you want to catch your flight and start the holidays with your family. TSA says it wants to help with that and is working hard behind the scenes. In turn, it’s asking you to meet the agency halfway.

“You can't bring your guns, you can't bring your bullets. Not in your carry-on bag,” Koshetz said.

JIA officials say so far this year, they've confiscated 32 firearms from carry-on bags -- most of them loaded. In all of 2015, that number was 25.